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Windows 8 Patch Reboot Policy

I’m kind of confused by the headlines that Microsoft is streamlining the security update process in Windows 8 resulting in less reboots.

One could easily conclude from the headline that Microsoft has gone to work to make it less necessary to reboot when updates are applied. Instead they are saving up reboots until patch Tuesday.

It is always good to challenge assumptions, but I’ve always been told that when you don’t reboot after patching, the system is in a unsteady state and the you aren’t patched until the reboot occurs. Perhaps they’ve corrected the first problem by making sure the system doesn’t partially patch and then wait for a reboot to replace the files in use. But you can’t solve the problem of the system not being patched until reboot. I haven’t seen anything indicating much of anything is new other than a reboot policy.

That’s just Microsoft patches. I see nothing here that will slow the rate of patches for end users. Microsoft talks about a single restart patching policy. They already only roll security patches once a month.

Microsoft achieved what they wanted. They received positive press for Windows 8. I’m still not sure what is changing.